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To Stop a Terrorist

TO STOP A TERRORIST

Sequel to The Gigas Plot, although given its limited popularity, this will be written so that you don’t need to read the original at all. These first two chapters I post will cover everything that you would have missed from reading The Gigas Plot, so don't bother.

Disclaimer: I do not pretend to own any of the pokemon in this story, nor do I pretend to own the various other characters that I did not create.

The pokeball laying in the grass cast a sharp glare off its metallic surface as Carter leaned down to pick it up. He smiled softly; it had taken too long to climb the horrid mountain and many long hours of searching, but he had finally found the pokemon he had been looking for.

Adjusting his orange fisherman’s cap, Carter looked east toward the setting sun and the waterway leading to the open ocean. He now understood why the psychic and ghost trainers would want this breathtaking view all to themselves. Several times while walking up the jagged, irregular path to the top of Mount Pyre, Carter had been stopped and asked what in the world a water pokemon specialist was doing in such a place.

“It’s not for me,” he had calmly replied to each. “I’m out to capture a pokemon for my friend.”

Hoennites and their stereotypes! While it may have been true that Carter preferred just about everything else to climbing a mountain, it was exactly that kind of close-mindedness that he despised about the region.

After one last glance at the scattering of colors in the twilight sky, the singular pokemon trainer on the mountaintop decided that it would be better to get back to the safety of Mount Pyre’s interior passageways. Carter jogged down the dirt path feeling uneasy with the knowledge that ghost pokemon were about to come out for the night. Fortunately he made it back to the cave he had come from without incident.

Longing for companionship, Carter grabbed a pokeball from his belt and released a small blue jellyfish pokemon onto the ground. He picked it up and, letting its two tentacles dangle freely near his legs, started the lonely walk back down through the cave.

The orbs in the Tentacool’s head began to give off a faint red glow that provided Carter with a light to see by as they entered the total darkness and silence of Mount Pyre’s interior. While during the day the stone passageway was used as an intense training ground for ghost and psychic pokemon, at night it was an unwritten rule that the dual function as a graveyard must be respected and to make any kind of noise was unacceptable.

The jellyfish pokemon responded with a low-pitched hiss, which Carter interpreted as a noise of approval. They lapsed into silence as another trainer came into view. The girl, wearing the loose costume associated with paranormal enthusiasts, walked by with nothing more than a nod in Carter’s direction. She seemed to be guided by the glow of her smoke-based pokemon, Gastly.

The sight of the ghost type brought back bitter memories of Carter’s mother, who must have once wandered these same passageways with her array of undead pokemon. Of course she would have catered to such a task in order to fit in better with her pokemon training group. Carter’s found himself glaring off into the darkness in an attempt to dispel his anger as he forced himself to keep walking on the downhill slope that eventually led outside. With another hiss, Tentacool tried to reassure its trainer. The blond boy couldn’t help but smile briefly; he had told Tentacool everything, of course.

The silent walk continued on until the main interior chamber of Mount Pyre opened up before them all at once. The walkway that Carter was on spiraled around the walls of the room to reach the ground, and he wasted no time in jogging down to the ground level.

In the middle of the chamber, two orbs sat next to each other that provided light to the entire room. With a short glance at the red and blue spheres, Carter chuckled darkly at how naive the people of Hoenn had been. It wasn’t until the attacks on Rustboro City and Pacifidlog Town that they were willing to admit the activities of Team Aqua and Team Magma were not over.

Carter knew little of the great clash between Groudon and Kyogre that had occurred a few years earlier but had been intimately involved in preventing the two groups’ recent quest to capture Regigigas and abuse its control over the world’s tectonic plates. All four of the Regi pokemon were safe now, and only he knew their location.

His friend Elea was right, though, to suspect that the extremist groups were still at large. Their meeting tomorrow in Lilycove City was to go over a new piece of evidence she had found. With the next day in mind, Carter lay down in front of the large stone where the two orbs sat. He recalled Tentacool in preparation to go to sleep. The Mount Pyre guidebook he had purchased explained that ghost pokemon had purposefully avoided the main chamber ever since the red and blue orbs were moved in there, so he had nothing to fear from the night.

Though normally he was not one for religion, the presence of Groudon and Kyogre’s spirits spurred Carter into a quick prayer before nodding off.

Dear god, please protect the people of Hoenn from Team Aqua and Team Magma. But if you don’t, I will.

*****

Ecruteak City’s gym seemed to loom dangerously over all other buildings in the world in the instant that Nia looked up at it. She had obtained every gym leader’s badge in the Johto region except for this one.

The sidewalk that led past the brick building was cracked with use and had grass growing in between the tiles. It was as if nothing had ever happened here, and that was what Nia had been afraid of the most.

“What did I expect?” she whispered out loud. “A f*cking memorial or something?”

Morty was not the most threatening gym leader in the region - Nia was not so naive to think so, but she had avoided this particular spot for a different reason altogether. She sat down with her back against the outside wall of the gym and stared at the ground before her.

It was as if she was reliving Keith’s death all over again. It haunted her in nightmares, of course, but to actually stand in the spot where she had seen him die was so much more real. Sadness overwhelmed her for a moment, but only a moment.

Keith would have known better. He wouldn’t have wasted nearly a year mourning for something when he knew his feelings couldn’t change the outcome. Nia pulled herself back to her feet and finally faced the gym to see it in a new light. Keith had given her strength, and she was going to win her eighth badge in his honor.

She swung open the glass double doors with a confident smirk, only to lose the expression upon being confronted with a strange black haze that enveloped the room. Fully intending for her fire type to try and burn the fog away, Nia reached down to her pokeball belt. She stopped, however, when a voice rang out.

“It’s her, at long last!” A male voice sounding far away seemed amused. “Will you bring her to me now?”

A pair of dismembered purple hands suddenly clamped onto Nia’s shoulders. They lifted her up into the air, squeezing hard enough to cut off her circulation, so all the girl could do was utter a faint grunt. A purple pokemon with a spiked body floated out of the darkness to her, appearing to be in control of the hands. It stuck a lazy tongue out inches from Nia’s face as if to taunt her with death.

In the next instant both trainer and pokemon were shooting forward through the fog to an unknown destination. Nia screamed, fearful that the ghost pokemon would decide to pass through a wall and let her slam into it instead. Just as suddenly as they had started moving, the Haunter came to a halt on the other side of the fog. A large battlefield lay before Nia now, and she marveled at the intricate markings in the concrete floor as Haunter flew in loops to make its way back across to the other side.

“It would be absurd for me to test your skills using my gym trainers,” the same male voice called out to the brunette, and Nia saw Morty for the first time as he stared her down. “Nia Willow. You think that this gym will be a whitewash victory, don’t you? Tell me, what do you plan to do after defeating me?”

Nia’s face flushed with embarrassment. She realized it must have been the talk of all the gym leaders that she had skipped Ecruteak City, and now they all knew her story.

“I’m going to Hoenn to track down Team Aqua and make them pay for taking everything away from me,” she said venomously, as if daring him to suggest something more worthwhile. “And yes, I do think this will be a whitewash victory for me!”

In its place, Morty tossed another pokeball onto the field, revealing a purple sort of pokemon that seemed to be wearing a triangular hat. The ghost’s bright yellow eyes seemed to stare straight through Nia as though she were some kind of pathetic creature. Though she was unwilling to show fear, Nia felt as if the ghost could simply sense it within her and then relay this information to its trainer.

“Fear is how he beats you,” she reminded herself, stopping her thoughts before they got out of control. “I choose Kingdra!”

The massive seahorse was her true powerhouse. After defeating Clair at the Blackthorn Gym, Nia had received along with her badge a coveted dragon scale that would evolve her Seadra into “a monster worth every ounce of training you gave it.” Since then Nia had never lost a battle.

“Start off with Hydro Pump!” she commanded. Kingdra fired a large jet of water from its tube-like mouth, looking to be a direct hit.

“Mismagius, shoot a Thunderbolt back when the water hits you!”

The instant Kingdra’s attack made contact, a stream of electricity flowed back through the water to shock the dragon in its mouth. Kingdra screamed out in pain and immediately quit its Hydro Pump.

“Now bank to the left and fire a Shadow Ball,” Morty ordered.

Nia’s pokemon was so delicately balanced on its tail that she knew it would be unable to dodge the incoming attack. “Counter that with Draco Meteor!” she called out instead.

Countering the hit was definitely an understatement. As Mismagius unleashed an orb of black energy, Kingdra swiveled its head around to face the ghost type and charged up a large orange ball of energy in front of its scorched mouth. With a loud grunt, the seahorse fired its attack to intercept the Shadow Ball. Mismagius’s attack was completely canceled out and the pokemon itself was struck with an explosion that left sparks flying around the room like fireworks.

A crumpled mess of purple lay twitching on the ground and Nia was under the impression that she had defeated Mismagius. After all, there were very few pokemon that could survive a point-blank Draco Meteor shot.

“Pain Split!” Morty smiled faintly. Kingdra started screaming in pain for no apparent reason as Mismagius slowly rose up from the floor with a demonic look. “That move puts both pokemon on equal footing in terms of health.”

“I know how it works!” Nia snapped. At the same time she couldn’t help but wonder if every gym leader had such powerful pokemon that were reserved for stronger trainers. It wasn’t going to be an easy match at all.

*****

“Can I get your name, sir?”

A middle-aged, slightly balding man stood at the custom’s desk in Chrono Island and sighed. Ever since Regigigas had destroyed two Hoenn cities, the Kanto government was very reluctant to let outsiders into their territories. Rightly so, he knew, but it still aggravated him.

“Norman Evans,” he replied. “Petalburg City Gym Leader... formerly.”

That damn “formerly” was going to haunt him for the rest of his life! The woman at the custom’s desk gave him a nonplussed look as if to doubt his identity. It was slightly ironic in a way. He had spent years pretending not to be Norman Evans and now he couldn’t pull off the truth.

“Residency number 2135532,” Norman clarified as the woman looked him up on her computer to check for a valid passport.

Fortunately “Marge” came to the conclusion that a gym leader was of no threat to national security without actually looking his file up and allowed Norman to move on into the actual town of Chrono Island. Many people were gathered on the southern beach to watch the light of the sunset become scattered throughout the rocky maze of the Water Labrynth. It truly was a beautiful sight, he had to admit.

Someday after the oceans are expanded, Norman mused, everyone will live in smaller communities and be able to see this sunset.

He thought of Archie, Team Aqua’s original founder, and of the task list he had bestowed on Norman before going off to his death in the battle against Kyogre. The ingenious man had created backup plans to fulfill his ultimate goal of flooding the earth. However, the former gym leader remembered with a pang of frustration, Team Aqua had since been stopped at every single step along the way. Regigigas was missing, it had become physically impossible to ever find Lugia, and even the colony of Lunatone intended to control the tides had been freed.

But this time it was different. There was one last powerful pokemon that could control the oceans hidden somewhere in the Sevii Islands, and Norman was going to find it and restore power to Team Aqua. This time, nobody knew of his plans. One of his commanders had ruined the Regigigas plot, so nobody could be trusted.

Exiting through the sliding glass doors of Ecruteak City’s pokemon center, Nia couldn’t help but feel a sense of anticlimax. Ten months of training to gather all of the Johto League badges, and she was supposed to feel better about Keith’s death because of it. She had, after all, accomplished his goal.

But at what cost? A year of her life? The eight little metallic pins meant absolutely nothing to her. It was not the sight of her victories that kept Nia going every day, it was the memories of those who had cared about her, and even they were starting to fade with time.

“To win the Sinnoh League” had always been her answer when her parents had asked what she wanted to do when she grew up. Nia knew that was well within her reach: she still had the three starter pokemon from her parents’ lab that were now fully evolved, and Kingdra was always very strong.

The Bell Tower loomed up ahead at the eastern edge of town. It was a beautiful multi-tiered building built in the traditional Johto style, and only pokemon trainers who had obtained all eight badges were allowed inside. This was presumably because important information concerning the pokemon league was given out inside.

Two policemen stood in front of a short, scenic pathway leading to the tower marked as “Bellchime Trail.” One was short and heavy, while the other had the opposite stature. As the brunette approached the pair distractedly, the taller policeman’s head snapped to look at the girl and obtained a nervous expression.

“You can see all of my badges are right here,” Nia said offhand as she opened up a small case to show the policemen. “So can... Inspector Dan?”

Daniel Wright had been the one assigned to investigate her parents’ murder, but eventually got nowhere. It had all been part of the Team Aqua conspiracy, evidently, because Nia clearly remembered having to fight an Aqua commander alongside him with no explanation. To see him here at the Bell Tower was strange to say the least.

“Yes, I have been... reassigned, as you can see,” the man smirked. “Roger, let this girl pass. She’s no harm to us.”

The Bellchime Path had appeared completely pointless from the outside, but Nia was overwhelmed by a feeling of peacefulness once inside. It wound around in the forest, completely shielded from the noises of the city, and she had a sudden desire to share it with her pokemon. Torterra was called out immediately, and the large reptilian pokemon seemed to enjoy the fresh air.

“Do you think we should enter the Silver Conference?” Nia asked her grass type. “We’ve worked so hard to get to this point, but I just don’t know...”

The unspoken knowledge was that the team would be wiped out for certain once the full battle rounds started. Spearow was just not up to speed with the other five yet, being a new capture, and that put Nia at a disadvantage against more experienced trainers.

There was a plateau of power, of course, that her Kingdra, Torterra, and Infernape had reached. The other two were still training, but they were well on their way too. Once a pokemon reached a certain point, Nia had discovered along her journey, it did not grow exponentially stronger any more and thus she could compete against trainers far older and more experience than her.

Torterra plodded along the dirt pathway in quiet contentment for a few moments while Nia lagged behind mulling over her thoughts. The tortoise stopped up ahead and let out a low grumble to get its trainer’s attention. Nia looked up to discover that they were now right in front of the magnificent tower. The entire building appeared to be covered in silver leaf, save for the red tiles on top of each tier.

She envisioned at once the huge stadium where the Johto League was held. Keith had been much more experienced than her and still failed to do well in the tournament. Not that a top 8 finish was bad, but it wouldn’t be satisfying. She had to be the best one out there. It was within reach, but not just yet. If only she had a few more months.

“Another year,” Nia whispered to nobody as she recalled Torterra. She made her way to enter the building anyway, feeling she had at least earned the right to look around a little and try to take in some more of Johto’s rich history.

The sound of shouting from inside the tower stopped Nia in her tracks. She crept around past the main entrance to a side window to try and hear the conversation better. A pang of grief went through her chest as she recalled the last time she had eavesdropped through a window - she had seen her parents murdered that day, and it was all part of the grand conspiracy that eluded her.

“It doesn’t matter if you aren’t comfortable with the job!” a woman’s voice declared from inside. “If you die here, it was for a greater cause.”

“But it’s more rational to just WAIT until...” a second person argued back.

“In all likelyhood the girl has destroyed the Rainbow Wing as well,” the first woman snapped. “But just because we can’t see the sky god doesn’t mean he isn’t here!”

Nia gasped and started walking away from the tower as fast as she could. She knew that there had formerly been an item called the “Silver Wing” that Team Aqua had been after that supposedly allowed the holder to find Lugia, a legendary pokemon the group was going to use to control ocean currents. She hadn’t considered the possibility of yet another invisible legendary pokemon.

With the faint hope that the Ecruteak Library would hold answers, Nia gave a quick nod to Inspector Dan on her way out. It then occurred to her that if Team Aqua was indeed inside the Bell Tower, Dan might actually be actively investigating her case.

*****

A small seaside cafe in Lilycove City provided the perfect place for trainers across the region to meet up before starting the journey across the ocean to some of the pokemon gyms. Thus nobody would suspect the pair currently seated and eating sandwiches of anything more.

“Yeah, it turns out when people catch you on video attacking Pacifidlog Town with a legendary pokemon, then you tend to get in a little bit of trouble.”

Carter snorted at her sarcastic explanation of what had actually been a dangerous situation for them both. Regigigas truly had been an unstoppable force, and it was fortunate that more people hadn’t died from the event. “Do we know where he went, then?”

The girl was staring out at the ocean, seeming not to have heard the question.

“Elea,” the fisherman repeated to catch her attention. “Do we know where Norman went?”

“Yeah, sorry.” She gave him a weak smile. “The lady selling tickets in Slateport told me that he went to Kanto, specifically the Sevii Islands. I was just trying to think if that could mean he’s up to something.”

A large wave came up and crashed onto the shore at the moment, showering both trainers with water. Carter could have sworn he saw a Feebas wash up on shore for a second, but pushed it out of his mind as he already had the rare fish in his possession.

“If we see Team Aqua members with him, then he has a plan,” Carter mused. “If Team Magma follows him, then it’s for real. So we just keep our eyes out for Hoenn water pokemon and Drifblims.”

If nothing happened, it would just be a nice vacation for the two of them. The blond boy smiled and wondered when he should give Elea her present. And maybe if they got lucky the Kanto police would be less corrupt and actually help out, but that might be wishing for too much.

Chapter three

So no replies yet... I won't let this discourage me! In fact, the more stuff I have out here, the more likely I am to get readers, right?

Either way, I got my usual Pirates of the Caribbean inspiration and then wrote this chapter tonight...

CHAPTER THREE

Chrono Island stretched out in a long, thin crescent, with the interior coast forming a long expanse of beach. Beyond the sand lay a variety of uneven hills and cliffs, save for the forest area in the center of the island.

It was this peculiar grove of trees, in fact, that Norman was headed toward. As he walked down the main street of Chrono Island’s town, a few groups of people passed by on their way either to the beach or to the town’s hotel.

Fortunately, most everyone was heading to the far north end to rent jet skis. An area called the Water Labyrinth provided the perfect circumstances for some really rough riding on the waves, and thus Chrono Island’s major tourist attraction had been born. A select crowd of rich Kanto residents even had summer homes out on some of the large sandbars next to the Labyrinth for the purpose of jet skiing.

Going against the flow of traffic was detrimental to Norman’s progress, of course, but eventually he reached the eastern edge of the town where a trailer park slowly faded into the forest.

Anyone familiar with the island knew that a certain group of men lived there. Ones that were available to do any dirty work that might be needed as long as the pay was good. Norman skirted the edge of the row of trailer homes and plunged straight into the forest itself.

After becoming hopelessly entangled in the underbrush, it became apparent to the former gym leader that it was necessary to follow the small trails winding around that were used by whatever small mammal pokemon must live in the area. These, he discovered soon enough, were Sentret, perhaps the most annoying of all pokemon species on earth.

The tiny brown creatures would run up and scratch at the man’s legs and feet as an apparent defensive measure as he passed by their hiding spots. With a final groan, Norman snatched a pokeball from his belt and released a blob-like red pokemon onto the ground in front of him.

“The next Sentret that comes out, you have my permission to eat it,” he encouraged Octillery, who nodded excitedly at the prospect of a quick meal.

The tentacled pokemon lunged forward and pried a Sentret out of the bushes, suction cups holding tight to the creature’s bushy tail. Then, in one big gulp, the pokemon disappeared inside Octillery’s open beak, screaming all the way. After that incident, no more Sentret bothered the water type or its trainer.

Eventually the trees gave way to what appeared to be some kind of storage facility. Norman wandered around to the front and recalled Octillery before pressing the call button next to the large garage door leading inside.

“Password?” a computerized voice asked.

“Girafarig,” he stated cleanly, watching as the door rose up before his eyes to let him inside.

*****

Riding on the back of Wailord, Carter and Elea were traveling down the length of Chrono Island’s beach. The whale pokemon was swimming in as shallow water as it could get, but the island shelf extended quite a ways into the ocean, so there would still be some wading involved for the two trainers.

“It wouldn’t be the first time Team Aqua has hired help from here,” Elea explained. “The Rockets will do anything for money.”

The pair was about to leap into the waist-deep water to make their way toward the shore when two jet skis approached Wailord from behind. The man and woman riding them both had blue bandanas holding back hair and grinned mischievously at the sight of who they had apprehended.

“You’re not going anywhere!” the woman shouted, throwing a pokeball into the water as the man threw two of his own.

As the three forms materialized in the water, Carter wasted no time in unleashing his array of pokemon caught from fishing. Tentacool, Tentacruel, and Feebas all began charging toward the Team Aqua members’ pokemon as Elea sent out her only pokemon capable of fighting in the situation, a small disc-like psychic pokemon.

The evolved jellyfish, meanwhile, had taken the initiative to completely impede the the opposing Starmie’s movement with Wrap, and Elea instructed her Bronzor to pummel the starfish pokemon with Psybeam attacks.

“Mantine, fend them off with Wing Attack!” the female Aqua member shouted desperately to her pokemon, which appeared to be gradually losing the fight.

As the only unoccupied pokemon, Sharpedo, began to charge at Wailord, Elea and Carter leapt into the water to allow the whale to fight back without worrying about their safety. The massive water type rolled off to its side with considerable speed to dodge Sharpedo’s Skull Bash attack.

“Hydro Pump!” Carter shouted in retaliation from his spot on the edge of the island’s continental shelf.

A loud squeal pierced everyone’s ears as the Team Aqua man’s Starmie eventually pulled off a Rapid Spin attack, slicing deep into Tentacruel’s body and forcing it to let go. The starfish finished off with a weak Thunder Wave attack that send Bronzor’s disabled body plummeting to the sea floor.

The formidable jet of water coming from Wailord sent a startled Sharpedo flying end over end to land right in between the two jet skis to even the score. The shark pokemon grunted and got back up, but Carter’s Feebas was quick to smash into it, Mantine having been defeated already.

At that moment a middle-aged man ran out onto the beach shouting, “Matt, Shelly, we’re done here! They’re going to meet us when we get there!”

The female Aqua member zipped toward the shoreline to pick up Norman while Matt instructed his two pokemon to create a whirlpool to block Elea and Carter from following closely on Wailord.

“Let’s get on shore and into the Rocket Warehouse,” Elea suggested. “We can probably pay one of them off to tell where Norman is headed.”

*****

“Great work, Spearow! That’s actually really good progress!” Nia had been attaching weights to her pokemon’s legs to simulate carrying her body. With the brute force needed for a Wing Attack, the bird could just barely glide with the required weight.

Training her pokemon for an actual purpose other than power was a new concept. Nia could easily work on improving the power and accuracy of Kingdra’s Draco Meteor or Seaking’s Megahorn, but with Spearow it was completely different. She had to be completely confident in her pokemon’s abilities to feel even remotely safe with what she was about to do.

“Hey, can I ask you a quick question?” she spun around to come face to face with an embarrassed teenage boy.

She nodded, prompting him to ask, “I’m looking for the Bell Tower, but there’s two big towers in this town, so...”

“It’s the gold one, not the silver one,” Nia explained. “I read at the library today that the Bell Tower is supposed to symbolize the fire bird, so it’s gold as opposed to the water bird’s silver tower. Are you a trainer looking to enter the pokemon league?”

A small trace of worry had crossed over the boy’s face when Nia had explained the Bell Tower’s connection to the fire bird, but it disappeared in favor of an unreadable look when he was asked about the pokemon league.

“Actually, no. I heard that something... else was going on at the Bell Tower,” he spoke cautiously. “But thanks for the help!”

Spearow cawed impatiently, it’s feet yet to be untied from the heavy weights, and Nia turned her attention back to her bird pokemon for the moment as the boy walked away. At the last minute before he turned around the corner to go past the Ecruteak Library, she ran after him and grabbed his shoulder.

“Wait...” she whispered. “Were you talking about Team Aqua?”

A look of surprise crossed the boy’s face before he finally answered. “Team Magma actually. I have sort of a personal vendetta against them and I heard that police officers were swarming into the area, so I just assumed...”

“Team Magma?” Nia interrupted. “I thought they disbanded after the whole Groudon and Kyogre thing a couple years ago.”

“Nope, still alive and well. They are hidden within the Global Police Force, actually, so you would never know.”

“I was actually planning to fly up to one of the top floors of the tower and snoop around for Team Aqua,” Nia admitted. “If you think it’s Team Magma, you’re more than welcome to come with me.”

The boy nodded. “I’ll go then and explain more on the way. I’m Vincent, by the way.”

Once a pokemon reached a certain point, Nia had discovered along her journey, it did not grow exponentially stronger any more and thus she could compete against trainers far older and more experience than her.

*Experienced.
Ch. 3:

After becoming hopelessly entangled in the underbrush, it became apparent to the former gym leader that it was necessary to follow the small trails winding around that were used by whatever small mammal pokemon must live in the area. These, he discovered soon enough, were Sentret, perhaps the most annoying of all pokemon species on earth.

The tiny brown creatures would run up and scratch at the man’s legs and feet as an apparent defensive measure as he passed by their hiding spots. With a final groan, Norman snatched a pokeball from his belt and released a blob-like red pokemon onto the ground in front of him.

“The next Sentret that comes out, you have my permission to eat it,” he encouraged Octillery, who nodded excitedly at the prospect of a quick meal.

XD Funny!

I wonder what Sentret taste like...

“Great work, Spearow! That’s actually really good progress!” Nia had been attaching weights to her pokemon’s legs to simulate carrying her body. With the brute force needed for a Wing Attack, the bird could just barely glide with the required weight.

Training her pokemon for an actual purpose other than power was a new concept. Nia could easily work on improving the power and accuracy of Kingdra’s Draco Meteor or Seaking’s Megahorn, but with Spearow it was completely different. She had to be completely confident in her pokemon’s abilities to feel even remotely safe with what she was about to do.

I liked this. It's an interesting strategy.

Spearow cawed impatiently, it’s feet yet to be untied from the heavy weights

awesome story. good plot. i like the diescriptive battles. the battles aren't too long or too short. i also like how one team was stronger than the other. its neat how you mixed together hoenn and the sevii islands.

So as promised to myself I went ahead and wrote another chapter because the others were like a month old.

This one isn't very action-ey (sorry) but it basically sets up the rest of the plot...

CHAPTER FOUR

“I never knew Trainer Tower was such a big attraction,” Elea commented, looking around at all the battles taking place on the town’s streets. In particular a large group of people were watching a boy’s Ursaring fight a girl’s Girafarig.

Carter deliberately ignored her topic of conversation, knowing all too well how important Trainer Tower was. His parents had taken him here on vacation - or the “propaganda tour” as he liked to call it - to try and show their son the glamor of becoming a high level pokemon trainer.

“You really want a Girafarig, don’t you?” he asked, noticing how Elea’s eyes were following the two-headed pokemon’s every move. The Ursaring charged after the psychic type, and it pretended to run away, only to suddenly stop in its tracks and let the rear head bite down hard on the bear pokemon’s arm.

“They’re cool,” she agreed, “but when are you going to tell me what the new pokemon you captured is? I can see on your belt that you clearly have five pokemon now!”

A violent blush covered Carter’s face before she was even done speaking. The fisherman mumbled incoherently and started to walk away from Elea. She followed with a devious grin, beginning to ask questions.

“Is it really that embarrassing?”

“Is it a fire type then?”

“Ooh! Is it stolen?”

“Is it a present for someone? A girl maybe?”

“Actually,” she stopped for a second to ponder, “if it IS for some girlfriend you have, then why are you running away from...”

“Shut up!” Carter screamed, finally giving in to her need for an explanation before her ideas got too wild. “It’s for you, damnit!”

Elea’s face contorted strangely and she looked away for a moment. She then grabbed his arm and started leading him through the crowd toward the south edge of town, saying nothing the whole way.

The pair walked in deadly silence through the rocky terrain, making their way farther south toward the small cave the Rockets had told them about.

“Just because I only have two pokemon doesn’t mean I can’t catch more on my own, you know,” the dark-haired girl nearly whispered.

“I know that!” Carter retorted, “I just thought you might like this one.”

A rugged valley stretched out before Elea and Carter now, with a small opening in one of the rocky walls just barely visible. A small path winding down through the weeds appeared to be the easiest way down.

“Right, I’m being stupid,” Elea said. “Let’s just go down there and beat up some Team Aqua guys!”

Chuckling, Carter followed her lead. Several small pokemon scurried back into hiding as they made their way down the path, including a small green rock pokemon that the fisherman easily recognized. Larvitar. It reminded him of the first dead body he had seen due to Regigigas’s attack because that girl’s Pupitar had been the only one to survive. He wondered vaguely what happened to those kind of pokemon, completely out of their habitat, when their trainers died.

They stood before the cave opening now, which was much larger than it had appeared from a distance. Elea had imagined them sliding into it like a worm but in actuality the top was about a foot above her head and they could just walk in. Further, the light from outside clearly illuminated everything within.

“Here to help us?” a male voice taunted from the inside. The two trainers jumped, not realizing that there were people inside that could see them.

Each clutching a pokeball for defense, Elea and Carter slowly entered the cave to discover that it was only one chamber. Regrettably, Norman and his two Team Aqua agents were also in there inspecting the markings on the walls.

“Relax, girlie.” Aqua Admin Matt rolled his eyes as he saw Elea poised to release her Bronzor. “We aren’t here to fight you this time.”

“I thought you guys hired a bunch of Rockets to help you,” she said cautiously.

“We did,” Norman answered simply, not looking away from the back wall where all the mysterious writing was.

They were all just standing around, staring at the symbols. Carter suddenly had to hold in a laugh. Team Aqua had no idea how to decode the ancient runes! He beckoned Elea over and pointed to the wall carvings.

“Those are the same symbols as the ones in the Regi pokemon chambers!” he whispered. “We can translate them before they do! I’ll take a picture of the back wall if you move those three out of the way!”

In a moment, Bronzor used its Psychic attack to pin the three Aquas to the ground while Carter ran up to the back and took a series of pictures with his cell phone of all the runes. The floating mirror pokemon released its hold as Carter started to make a dash for the exit, but Norman was too quick on his feet, snatching the cell phone out of Carter’s hands.

“Who did you send those pictures to?” the ex-gym leader demanded.

“Someone who can read them,” Carter replied, backing away slowly.

“Why don’t we all sit here and wait for the translation, then?” Norman looked to Shelly and Matt, who sat down next to him, and eventually Elea moved over to sit by Carter on the cave floor.

*****

Nia was quite proud of her Spearow. It had been able to carry Vincent’s Swalot up to the window they were planning to sneak in on the Bell Tower’s second floor. In an interesting move, the poison type had squeezed itself through a crack in the windowsill and managed to open it from the inside.

Vincent, the strange boy she had just met, was the next to take a ride on Spearow. Nia watched as the small bird lifted him up to the open window to climb through. As Spearow flew back down and held out its legs for her to grab onto, Nia’s fear of flying suddenly came back to her. The memories of her trips on Keith’s unreliable Skarmory came flooding back, always ending with the memory of her escape on the metal bird after his death.

She closed her eyes and soon discovered that Spearow’s slow struggling ascent to the second story could hardly be compared to the high speed, high altitude death trip of a Skarmory. Nia made a mental note to try flying on her pokemon’s back after it evolved into Fearow one day.

Silently inspecting the area, Nia and Vincent soon discovered the entire second floor to be empty, but a quick trip upstairs proved the third floor to be promising. There were voices in the hallway, so the two trainers hid behind a corner, not daring to even breathe.

“Turns out we tortured that Radio Tower Manager for nothing,” a male voice reported. “Our Kanto Police finally uncovered the Rainbow Wing east of Pewter City.”

“And have our energy sensors determined which floor we need to be on?”

Vincent’s cell phone chose that unfortunate moment to chime with a new text message. Wide-eyed, he and Nia shared a look and took off running back down the stairs as a woman’s voice screamed the word “Intruder”.

The head start Vincent and Nia had gotten was enough so they could get back to the open window and jump down onto Swalot’s body for a cushy landing. Spearow fired a Gust attack back into the building for good measure, and then the four ran into the nearby forest and hid behind a tree.

“We almost got KILLED because of a text from your girlfriend!” Nia glared at the boy, who seemed to be ignoring her in favor of digging a few sheets of paper out of his backpack.

“Not my girlfriend,” he said. “This is from one of my Hoenn friends, and it looks like he found some ancient runes.”

“The legend... of balance,” Vincent referred to his translation sheets as he looked through the pictures on his phone. “Spirit of fire... and water.”

Nia plopped down next to Vincent and stared at his lists of the meanings of ancient symbols. “I don’t see why you’re doing this. That probably leads you to a legendary pokemon, and more people will die if you awaken it.”

The pale-skinned boy looked up to stare at her briefly before looking back to his phone and starting to type up a reply with the translation.

A tall, uniformed figure approached the trainers and their pokemon in the woods. He smiled slightly when he saw the girl - she would make his job easy, of course.

“Inspector Dan?” Nia asked as she saw the policeman in front of them now.

“Yes, yes, hello Nia.” He nodded his head in acknowledgement. “Now, what’s this I hear about a northern island? Would it help my investigation?”

Vincent hit the send button, looked up, and gave the man a long calculating look as he had previously done with Nia.

“We think Team Aqua might still be after something in the Whirl Islands,” he said evenly before gathering up his papers and walking away.

Nia soon followed, but he ignored her comments on how she knew they could trust him. It didn’t matter if he was investigating her parents’ deaths, he still could not be trusted. If Nia had been paying any kind of attention at all, she should have noticed that the Whirl Islands had nothing to do with a spirit of fire. It was more likely that Carter was in the Sevii Island chain, Vincent decided, and it may have been referring to the legend of Mt. Ember. Whatever “the navel rock” was he had yet to figure out, but he would just call Carter later.

“You know,” he said to Nia, “You’re right that people might die. But there are some of us that would rather have that than live in ocean-world controlled by a Team Aqua dictator.”

*****

When Carter’s phone buzzed with a response, the rift between the Aquas and Carter and Elea was temporarily forgotten as the five pokemon trainers excitedly huddled around the cell phone.

“The legend of balance keeps the elements of fire and water equal,” Shelly read from the screen. “The fire spirit lives on the most northern island and the water spirit lives on ‘the navel rock’. Each keeps the other from total destruction.”

Elea silently counted to three by tapping one, two, then three fingers on Carter’s back. On three, her Bronzor emitted a powerful Flash attack that stunned Norman, Matt, and Shelly, giving Carter the chance to grab his cell phone and escape with Elea. The bright light seemed to have a strange effect on the carvings inside, but they had no time to wonder about it.

The pair had made it back to the top of the valley when Norman finally stumbled back outside, cursing revenge. Carter ran to the nearby coastline and released Wailord into the water. Once he and Elea climbed on the large water type took off swimming north.

Once Wailord had made it a sufficient distance away to ensure their safety, Elea looked back at Quest Island one last time. To her horror, a swarm of what must have been hundreds of tiny black creatures was swarming around the island’s southern peninsula.

“What are those?!” Carter cried out.

“It must have been because of that Flash in the cave,” Elea said mournfully. “Didn’t you see the runes glowing as we left?”

Well, this is a quick turnaround for getting a chapter written, and I should probably hold off on posting, but oh well. I think the action in the last half of the chapter makes up for the slow first half.

Also, JUST SO YOU KNOW! It turns out Bronzor doesn't really learn Mirror Coat, but it's a mirror for god's sake so I let it get that move anyway.

CHAPTER FIVE

“Vincent thinks they’re going to Knot Island first,” Carter mentioned to his partner after hanging up his cell phone.

“Only because we’re assuming they don’t know what a navel rock is either,” Elea shrugged. “But I guess this is better than doing nothing. Maybe they want to destroy the fire spirit first so nothing bad happens when they find the water spirit. Did Vincent say he’s coming down to join us?”

Carter shook his head. “Not this time. Team Magma is up to something in Johto now.”
“Surprise.”

A low-pitched growl came from Wailord, and the pair followed its gaze to the approaching island that appeared to be completely formed from the volcano. The mountain part itself lay on the east side, while it just continued to slope down westward until the island ended. A plateau area, of course, had been excavated to build the Knot Island town itself, but volcanic rock was clearly the dominant feature.

Carter recalled his whale pokemon as they hopped out onto the small pier meant for ferries. The largest pokemon center in the southern hemisphere lay before them, appearing to be the only building with any type of activity whatsoever. With a shrug, he walked inside, closely followed by Elea.

Inside, a huge group of people were clustered around the center’s large tv screen, which appeared to be showing footage of Quest Island. The reporter on-screen was filming from a boat that appeared to have some sort of psychic pokemon’s barrier surrounding it. It showed people running onto any boat they could find just to get away from the island, with various trainers’ pokemon helping out with Protect shields.

“What’s going on?” Elea asked a nearby man, fearful of the small black creatures she saw attacking the town.

“Oh, no! We’re not afraid of the Unown, we’re afraid that the fire spirit will wake up and want to kill us!”

Carter shared a look with Elea. They had the right island, then.

“Do you know what it takes for the fire spirit to wake up?” he pressed on.

“No,” the Knot Island man said, “I’m afraid I don’t.”

“Someone came by earlier with the same question,” an old woman said. “The people of Fortune Island have long since bragged that they have the key to awaken the spirits of fire and water. I don’t know if it’s true or not, but that’s where your other three friends went.”

Elea and Carter dashed out of the pokemon center immediately upon discovering that Team Aqua was ahead of them. A quick look at the map showed Fortune Island to be southeast of their current location, and Wailord did not hesitate to take off in that direction. Possibly their only advantage was the limited ferry service available for Team Aqua due to the Unown crisis.

That dumb lady, thought Elea angrily, she just gave away information to Team Aqua like it was nothing! Of course, everyone thinks the organization broke up last year after the Regigigas incident.

*****

The woods behind the Bell Tower was a perfect spot for Vincent and Nia to set up camp. They sat having a small picnic along with Swalot while waiting for any activity at the tower. After the bits of the conversation they had overheard, Nia had pieced together that the Rainbow Wing was Ho-oh’s equivalent of Lugia’s Silver Wing and that it would probably be delivered to Team Magma soon.

“You would think they would want that item here as soon as possible,” she commented. “I mean, that’s what Team Aqua tried to do.”

“But these guys are much better at planning things,” Vincent reminded her. “They sat dormant inside the police force for years until it was the opportune time for Team Magma to strike. Maybe there’s something more to this that we don’t know.”

“Swalot!” the purple pokemon briefly inflated its body before pointing back to the tower.

“Wait, we COULD do that!” Vincent exclaimed, turning to Nia. “We used Swalot’s Poison Gas attack to drive Norman out of his gym once, so maybe we could try and drive away Team Magma!”

At that moment several men in police uniforms darted out of the building as a helicopter descended and landed on the ground in front of them. Vincent dashed forward, recalling Swalot, before Nia could even react. She screamed for him to come back but he seemed too determined to make it to the helicopter.

“To Knot Island at once,” one of the men shouted to the helicopter pilot, and that was all Vincent heard before it took off into the sky again. The young trainer gasped as he realized his verbal trick had not fooled them in the slightest.

“I’m afraid you know too much now,” a familiar voice said, and Vincent spun around to face Detective Dan. “Drifblim, attack with Hypnosis!”

Vincent released Swalot to try and fend off the dangerous ghost type as he furiously typed up a text message to Carter:

TEAM MAGMA IS COMING FOR THE FIRE SPIRIT

Seconds later, his poison type was defeated and Drifblim’s Hypnosis caused Vincent to drift off to sleep as Dan approached him with an evil smirk.
*****

“I don’t know where we are,” Carter admitted as Wailord swam along the coast of a small rocky island.

“And you think I do?” Elea growled. “Let’s at least go on shore and check out that cave.”

She pointed to a small opening in the rock wall. Upon drawing closer, a series of ancient runes became visible above the entrance to the cave. Elea stared at the markings for a second, becoming nervous as their last encounter with the ancient language in the Sevii Islands had unleashed a swarm of angry pokemon.

Tentacool was released to provide a light source as the two trainers cautiously walked through the cave entrance. Like the Quest Island cave, it appeared to be only one chamber. Carter carried his glowing jellyfish to the back wall to look for writing.

“Elea, these look like claw marks,” he gestured to deep gashes cut into the stone right above his head.

She began walking over to inspect the area Carter was at, running her hands along one of the side walls. “Those are over here too. It’s like there was some pokemon trapped in here and it wanted to escape.”

The fisherman turned around to face Elea when she gasped and pointed to where he was standing. “Carter!” she whispered. “You’re standing in a giant footprint! I think we need to get out of here fast!”

A loud cry came from outside that the pair recognized as Wailord, and they looked to each other in horror. Carter’s brain quickly conjured up the image of a giant Tyranitar coming back to its home cave after hunting pokemon for the day. He sprinted back outside, closely followed by Elea.

“How fitting that the idiots got lost on Outcast Island,” a male voice taunted, and Elea recognized Matt and Shelly once her eyes adjusted to the sudden light. She snatched her two pokeballs from her belt and immediately released Bronzor and Slakoth.

The two Aquas swam to the shore to allow Mantine and Sharpedo to attack, and Matt also released his Starmie as well as a new pokemon they had never seen before. It had a large tortoise-like shell with a long blue dinosaur’s neck and head protruding from the front.

“I see you are shocked by my Lapras,” Matt grinned mischievously. “They’re very rare, after all. I brought this guy back from home because we needed a pokemon to stand up to that whale over there.”

“Tentacool, use Sludge Bomb to poison it!” Carter cried, throwing the small pokemon from his arms into the water.

“Bronzor, Slakoth, team up on Starmie!” Elea shouted while Carter hurriedly released his other two pokemon into the ocean.

The massive Lapras started after Wailord, its intended target, the horn on its head spinning rapidly. Meanwhile, Matt laughed at Carter’s array of water types and ordered a Thunderbolt from Starmie.

The steel type flew in the direct path of the attack, its reflective surface gleaming in the sun. Starmie’s beam of electricity struck it head-on, but the attack seemed to glance off harmlessly and instead shot straight toward Shelly’s Mantine while it powered up for a Gust attack.

“Mantine, no!” the woman cried, recalling her unconscious pokemon.

At the same time, Tentacool finally powered up its Sludge Bomb and leapt out of the water right in Lapras’s face. The dinosaur shrieked and drove its horn straight into Tentacool’s gelatinous body, causing the smaller pokemon to cry out in pain.

“Nice Waterfall attack, Feebas!” Carter complimented, his focus on the faceoff between the small fish pokemon and the much larger Sharpedo, but the screams of both Elea and Shelly caused him to turn his head to where Tentacool had just been attacked.

The blue jellyfish pokemon lay floating on top of the water in an expanding pool of red liquid. Whether it was Tentacool’s blood or the luminescent fluid from its orbs, Carter didn’t want to know. He gasped, recalling the first time he had seen such injuries. The fisherman recalled Tentacool immediately.

It was just like Tentacool’s mom, he thought, and I couldn’t save her! Carter’s mind went into a panic and he shared a knowing look with the pokemon’s older brother Tentacruel.

Wailord roared ferociously after seeing the attack on his friend and started charging at Lapras. An aura of multicolored energy surrounded the whale as it picked up speed and roared in anger once more. Lapras barely had time to look up and defend itself as the two pokemon collided violently.

Elea was the first to turn her attention away from the powerful Giga Impact attack, commanding a Faint Attack from her Slakoth. The sloth pokemon jumped into the water and seemed to disappear, right before materializing above Starmie and giving it a sort of bear hug of dark energy. The starfish pokemon fainted, and the dark-haired girl took the momentary distraction to call for Wailord and pull the nonresponsive Carter onto its body.

She had Bronzor and Slakoth send a combined Shock Wave and Charge Beam attack to deter Sharpedo, and Wailord made its escape southward to where they could see an island that seemed to have some sort of city on it.

With all my days off this week, I don't really have anything else to do but write these :P

Incidentally, I'm actually finished with everything now. After this chapter is a big finale, which I will probably put up some time in the next week.

CHAPTER SIX

The Fortune Island Pokemon Center’s head nurse beckoned Carter and Elea into one of the back rooms. She pointed to where a slightly oozing, shriveled up Tentacool lay on an operating table surrounded by doctors and Chanseys busy at work.

“These injuries are commonly seen in the wild,” she explained. “The Tentacool’s strength is in numbers, of course, not in the defenses of the individual. Our problem is when trainers capture these pokemon and expect them to perform the same as a more resilient pokemon such as our local Psyduck or Slowpoke, for instance. It is just simply not intended to be a trainer’s pokemon.”

“We are trying our best to save your Tentacool,” the nurse continued, “but you have to understand that in the wild, even other Tentacool and Tentacruel would leave behind a pokemon in this state.”

Carter stomped out of the hallway and back into the waiting room, knowing she was certainly wrong. His first meeting with his jellyfish brothers, in fact, had been when they were looking after their dying mother who had been ripped open by a Sharpedo. They had never abandoned her, and Carter was responsible for taking care of them now.

He sat down in a chair and crossed his arms, trying to detach from the swarm of emotions in his head. The fisherman didn’t even notice when Elea sat down next to him.

“Carter,” she whispered, staring at the tile floor, “you don’t have to go on anymore. It’s okay if you want to stay here...”

Adjusting his orange cap, Carter stood up and shook his head. “No, you can’t go on alone. Nobody else would help you fight Team Aqua. We’re getting behind just by sitting in here, when we should be headed into Ruin Valley.”

He pulled a pokeball off his belt and released Tentacruel into the pokemon center. The large blue and red pokemon looked at his trainer curiously.

“Your brother got hurt really bad fighting that Lapras,” Carter couldn’t meet the jellyfish’s eyes. “He’s being healed here, and he should be okay, but we have to leave now. I want you to stay here with Tentacool, and I p-promise I’ll be back... as soon as I can.”

Elea knew it was probably for the best that Tentacruel stayed behind, even if it meant leaving behind another one of their strongest battlers. She glanced at her two pokeballs, knowing Bronzor and Slakoth would have to step it up now. The former gym trainer briefly considered telling Carter they could look for a Weepinbell while in Ruin Valley as a replacement poison type, but thought better of it after seeing him in such an emotional state.

It was then that Carter finally looked at his cell phone to notice a text message from Vincent. “Ugh,” he groaned, “Vincent says Team Magma is going to Knot Island!”

“We better hurry then!”

And so, with two team members less, Elea and Carter set out from Fortune Island City toward Ruin Valley. It appeared as if the area had once been farmed, as the hillsides were terraced, but all that grew now was grass and weeds.

A deep feeling of unease began to set in as the pair wound around through the area walking along a dried riverbed. There were no adventurous trainers around that they could occasionally encounter, unlike the areas north of the city. Elea rationalized that nobody would come this way because it was completely overgrown with vegetation.

Eventually they walked up to the top of a hill to get a better view of the area. Down in a lake area was a large rock dome with two large pillars in front of it. Standing directly in front were two people in blue pirate outfits, the male holding a large sledgehammer.

She and Carter darted down the hill, and upon reaching the Aquas, Elea pointed to the large pillars in front of the door.

“You know what’s under those pillars?” she asked. “Water. That door you were about to smash is a damn counterweight! If you break it, the pillars sink and the whole cave fills up with water.”

The muscular man reluctantly laid down his large tool, looking suspiciously at the girl. “How do you know?” he asked, causing her to simply point to the metal chains suspending the large stone pillars from somewhere inside the cave.

She poised to release her Mantine and have it attack the stone blocks, but Elea once again shook her head. “That might cause the cave to collapse into itself,” she explained. “I don’t know if it would, but we can’t risk that. We can levitate them with psychic powers though. I have Bronzor, and you guys have a Starmie.”

The large Team Aqua member nodded and released his starfish pokemon into the air alongside Bronzor. He then picked up the sledgehammer as each pokemon slowly levitated a stone pillar into the air. It was the unspoken rule that all hell would break loose once the entrance to the cave was opened. They may have been cooperating in order to get inside, but Carter and Elea had no intentions of letting Team Aqua take the items to awaken the fire and water spirits, and vice versa for Team Aqua.

Matt lifted the heavy tool and took one huge swing at the stone entrance, where they assumed the wall would be the thinnest. A large portion of it completely shattered upon impact, and the four trainers wasted no time in scrambling through the rubble.

Only to come to a halt again, of course. An awkward impasse was reached when the cave proved to be a sort of tunnel that turned slightly downward into the dark earth.

“Send out your Tentacool,” Matt glared at Carter as he spoke. “We were counting on Starmie to provide light.”

“My jellyfish are both back at the pokemon center because your stupid Lapras attacked them!” the fisherman shouted back.

“And of course none of us brought flashlights because of that,” Elea mused. “My Slakoth knows Shock Wave, though. I mean, it would be dumb because we only get a few seconds of light each time, but it can work, I guess...”

And so the group proceeded slowly instead of racing each other, with Elea carrying the sloth pokemon over her shoulders to shoot a jolt of electricity at the wall for a quick reminder of what was ahead. Fortunately, the tunnel was smooth and fairly straightforward, ending in a chamber even with the water level where it was easy to see how the pillar mechanism actually worked. Elea had been right that the whole place would have flooded if not for the psychic pokemon outside holding the rocks up.

“There, in the middle!” Carter pointed to where he had seen some sort of stone table. Slakoth fired another Shock Wave to reveal that Matt had almost actually run into the protrusion in the ground.

Sitting on top were two small rocks, which Matt wasted no time in snatching up. He jumped back to avoid Carter, who lunged at him, and starting jogging back to where the exit tunnel was.

“Hey!” Elea shouted. “Slakoth, Faint Attack on him!”

There was a brief flash of a dark red aura as the sloth pokemon materialized right behind Matt and tackled him to the ground.

“Oh yeah?” the muscular man taunted in the dark as he threw Slakoth off of him. “Starmie, release your psychic hold!”

“Matt!” Shelly shrieked desperately, followed by indistinguishable words that were drowned out by a loud thud and the sound of rushing water.

Within seconds the water was chest high, and Matt had already released his Sharpedo to swim him out, followed by Shelly and her Mantine. Elea, fortunately, found Carter in the dark, underwater realm, and his Feebas helped them to swim back out of the tunnel to safety. The trainers and the tan and blue fish emerged back into the light to find an unconscious Bronzor on the ground and both stone pillars submerged.

“They’re gone,” Elea said as Carter coughed up some water. “Are you sure they got the items we were looking for?”

“I don’t know, but if not, we’ll have Tentacool back by then and he can just swim down to the chamber and find them himself.”

“So we assume they can awaken the fire spirit,” the dark-haired girl decided. “Back to Knot Island, then!”

*****

Nia crept around the Bell Tower, taking advantage of the fact that most of the high ranking Magmas seemed to have left in helicopters for some unknown reason. It didn’t matter to her: the building was now more empty than ever, and she needed to find where they took Vincent.

She and Spearow silently drifted through both the second and third floors, making it up to uncharted territory in the fourth at long last. The small bird flew at her shoulder, ready to fire a vicious Air Cutter attack at a moment’s notice if they encountered policemen.

Slowly peeking around the corner of a hallway on the fifth floor, Nia was glad she had not recklessly walked down it like she had been thus far. A man and a woman stood with their backs turned to her, conversing.

“We found out that the kid alerted his friends of our plans,” the man said. “And the receiving signal was already in the Sevii Islands somewhere, so we might have a problem.”

“Well, we can’t fix that now,” the woman lamented, “but we have the Rainbow Wing within this very building, so all is not lost.”

“Indeed. The prisoner has been terminated. We sent two agents to the hospital because of Gastro Acid burns from that Swalot, but the pokemon and his trainer were both killed.”

Nia couldn’t help but let out a moan of despair, though she tried to cover her mouth. They had killed another person close to her! It was only a matter of time before she was next! As the two Team Magma members realized there was someone else in the building, Nia sat at the bottom of the stairs to the fifth floor in near shock.

She remembered the last time she had seen her parents. Team Magma’s hired killer was demanding to know where her starter pokemon were, and had used a Haunter to steal her mother’s soul before she had a chance to bargain. Her dad had seen Nia watching through the window. With his last words, he had lied and said he didn’t know where she was.

She remembered the last time she had seen Keith. He had engaged in a battle with Team Aqua to protect her and been shot through the stomach by a Spike Cannon attack from a Cloyster. All Nia had been able to do was leave him and run to save her own life.

They had all died trying to protect her for some absurd reason called love. And now Vincent, though she had only known him for a few days, was dead too, and she was alone. It had always only been a matter of time before they killed her, even from the beginning.

But Vincent was different from the others. He and his two friends, whoever they were, didn’t fight for love. She remembered learning about how throughout most of world history, all the different continents of the pokemon world had been at war, and each one had to recruit soldiers to defend their homeland. That was before the peace treaty, of course. It occurred to Nia that that’s what Vincent and his friends were - soldiers. They were fighting not just for their family and friends, but for everyone’s families and friends, just because it was the right thing to do.

And I only cared about myself, Nia thought. I won’t just sit here and let Team Magma kill me now.

She jumped to her feet and unleashed Torterra onto the floor in the same motion just as she was discovered by the Team Magma agents. Suddenly, the floor and then the whole building began to shake violently, and Torterra’s confused expression indicated that it wasn’t due to any Earthquake attack of its own.

“We’re being attacked!” the woman in the police outfit pointed out the window to where a round purple pokemon floated up to the side of the building and proceeded to explode.

“Air Cutter!” Nia pointed to the window, causing her Spearow to release its pent-up energy into shattering the glass. It flew throught the opening, followed by Nia after she recalled her grass type. She leapt out of the fourth story window only to be caught by her flying pokemon seconds later.

Spearow managed to glide down to the top of a nearby tree so they could see what was going on. A group of people with Koffing and Grimer were having their pokemon selfdestruct on the building in an attempt to bring it down.

“Team Rocket,” Nia whispered from the safety of her perch in the tree. “Someone must have hired them to attack Team Magma. But who hates the Magmas that much?”

Whoever did it, she decided, was a genius to have figured out their headquarters building’s location. She watched as a ring of the poison types formed at the Bell Tower’s base and all exploded simultaneously, causing the once-magnificent tower to collapse. As the top story and roof collided with the ground, a beastly screech filled the air and the entire area went up in flames.

A large hole burst open in the roof, as if an invisible creature was escaping, and a rainbow seemed to start from that very spot and slowly make its way up and across the sky before disappearing over the horizon.

The hired Rocket agents, seeing their job was finished, dispersed quickly because they would only do what they were contractually obliged to.

So I now discovered it isn't wise to post a whole bunch of stuff at once - it clogs up the thread like no other and people won't respond. OH WELL!

Anyway, the finale! Or at least what I had planned it to be! Like last time, I may end up with some extended plot line, but I really don't know where to go with this, so if you actually read, PM me with your ideas!!

“Aww, how cute,” Elea teased, “But we don’t have time to worry about it. He’s like Tentacool right now: we care, but they will both be fine.”

The island still exuded an eerie calm when they reached it. As before, everyone on the island was still hiding out inside the large pokemon center, which of course would not stand up well at all to the wrath of some fire god. The old man and woman that Elea and Carter had talked with before came walking over to greet them almost immediately.

The woman opened her mouth to speak, but Elea quickly asked, “Have the people in blue pirate costumes been back here yet?”

“No, I’m sorry, they haven’t,” she said, shaking her head slowly as the elderly often do, “but I have a surprise for your friend here. I looked up his face in the trainer database and contacted his parents to come here for a visit!”

“You WHAT?!” Carter screamed, knocking the orange cap off his head with an exaggerated hand motion. “Why? Why not hers?”

“Because I’m still listed as a gym trainer under the fake identity Jeremy, you idiot,” Elea laughed. “I did make a convincing boy, if you remember!”

Stupid old people trying to be helpful, Carter mentally cursed the woman with all the anger he could muster.

“Yoo hoo!” a female voice shouted, causing Carter and Elea to exchange a look of total horror. Unfortunately, they had no time to react before a middle-aged couple made their way over, looking the very epitome of rich tourist.

“Oh my god,” Carter muttered under his breath as his parents began to start in on checking up on his life in their own manipulative ways.

“It’s so nice to see you brought your little girlfriend on this island vacation!” his mother gushed. “You two just look so adorable together here in this tropical setting!”

“Yes,” his father agreed, “and I’m sure she will love to watch you battle tough trainers at Quest Island’s Trainer Tower. Or have you already been there, future champ?”

Carter pried himself out of his mother’s embrace and pushed the two of them back. He stared incredulously at the two adults’ faces, wrestling with whether or not to tell them the truth.

“Mom, Dad,” he looked to each of them in turn, “you need to listen to me. Go home. It’s not safe here. Remember when Team Magma attacked your house? This is another one of those times.”

“I really wish you wouldn’t let these silly little criminals get in the way of your pokemon training, son,” Carter’s father reprimanded, causing the fisherman to smack his hand over his face in frustration.

“I am not a f*cking pokemon trainer!” he nearly screamed. “Nor will I ever be! You people think you can plan out my...”

“We need to go,” Elea grabbed his arm, pointing out the window at figures approaching the island rapidly on a Sharpedo and a Mantine. Carter wasted no time in leaving the stressful pokemon center in favor of a fight.

They sailed out on Wailord to intercept the two Aquas, but Shelly commanded her Mantine to stun the whale with a Confuse Ray while Matt sped on by toward the land. Elea released Bronzor to try and stop him with a Charge Beam, but he was already too far out of range.

Wailord recovered quickly and sped back to the coast directly underneath the volcano. Matt was running back down the hillside, apparently having accomplished whatever he was doing up at the top, and unleashed his three other pokemon into the water to fight.

“Lapras, use your Horn Drill on Wailord!” Matt called out. “Starmie, use Rapid Spin on the Bronzor!”

“Wailord, intercept that with Giga Impact!” Carter shouted, somewhat proud of the new ability his pokemon had obtained in the last battle.

The large whale crashed into Lapras at full force, but the dinosaur seemed to have new reserves of strength and was able to throw Wailord off to the side. Meanwhile, Feebas had charged at Starmie in a Waterfall attack that seemed to cancel out its Rapid Spin. Bronzor took the starfish’s momentary stillness to its advantage and crashed into it at full force.

“Good Crunch attack, Sharpedo!” Matt cheered as his shark pokemon took Slakoth between its jaws and clamped down hard. To his astonishment the sloth pokemon began glowing with a harsh white light and seemed to double in size. When the light died down, in Slakoth’s place was a vicious-looking white ape with tufts of red fur and the same sharp claws.

“Yes!” Elea cried out. “Vigoroth, use Crush Claw to get yourself out of there!”

Sharpedo, taken by surprise, could not keep its jaws clenched around the newly evolved pokemon and was swatted up onto the beach. Mantine, who had been charging a powerful Hydro Pump, chose to switch targets away from Feebas and instead fire at Vigoroth. As the jet of water knocked the normal type over into the sand, Elea turned to Carter with a small grin.

“The best part about this evolution is that he can finally launch off Solarbeam attacks instead of just sucking in all the light. Vigoroth, Solarbeam!”

Vigoroth formed a yellow ball in its hands for only a split second before firing it like a laser toward Mantine. The manta ray pokemon screamed and flailed wildly, but refused to give up just yet.

A well-placed Skull Bash by Sharpedo sent Feebas flying directly out of the water into Carter’s stomach, where he reluctantly recalled it to its pokeball. Out farther in the ocean, Starmie had tried to join the battle between Wailord and Lapras but it was difficult to tell if it was having any effect.

“Wailord, try a Dive attack!” Carter called out just as Matt ordered a Thunderbolt. With one large splash, the whale pokemon disappeared beneath the murky ocean water, causing a giant wave the allowed Mantine to ride on it and dodge a nasty Solarbeam.

Lapras screamed as a giant form emerged underneath it, flipping the shelled dinosaur end over end into the air, crashing against the Starmie who was faring similarly. A loud clang brought Elea’s attention back to Sharpedo, who had attempted a Skull Bash on Bronzor but underestimated the mirror’s resilience.

“Shock Wave!” she shouted, watching as her disk pokemon electrocuted the shark. Vigoroth charged in and punched the dark type back into the water with a Crush Claw, and Elea dared to think that they were getting the upper hand.

A loud explosion inland caused the battle to immediately cease. From the volcano a plume of smoke rose into the air, followed by a second, larger explosion that sprayed large chunks of molten lava into the air.

“What have you done?” Elea screamed at Matt, who shrugged, miming the dropping of one of the small rocks into the volcano.

A large fireball appeared in the sky, hovered for a second, and then exploded outward, shooting balls of fire in every direction. The four trainers on the beach dove into the water along with their pokemon to escape certain death. Upon resurfacing, it became apparent that a large flow of lava was making its way freely down toward the town, but that was all Carter could see because he was forced to duck underwater again as it rained fire and magma once more.

Through all the smoke, the silhouette of a large bird pokemon was visible at the top of the volcano, and it screeched wildly, enough even to disrupt Bronzor’s levitation and cause Elea to recall it.

Carter considered having Wailord use Hydro Pump to try and stop the lava flow from reach the town of Knot Island, but realized it would be of no use due to the sheer volume of magma pumping out of the sides of the mountain.

The resulting cloud of dust was quickly expanding outward, forcing the trainers to escape on Wailord, Sharpedo, and Mantine. The bird creature cried out once more and it seemed to use wind energy to rip all of the native trees out of the ground and launch flaming trees out into the ocean. After Wailord deflected one, the large water type turned to face off against the two Team Aqua members, who looked absolutely terrified.

“I... I c-can’t do this anymore,” Shelly stammered. “That whole island is going to be destroyed!”

As she spoke of attacks in an island-wide scale, a large vortex of flames was swept up to surround the entirety of Knot Island, preventing anyone from entering or escaping. The fire spirit was clearly nothing to mess with.

“We can’t... if the water spirit is exactly the same,” Shelly continued in a tremulous voice, “the whole world could be in danger. You have to stop Norman.”

Matt, seemingly in too much shock to be able to form actual words, just nodded slowly in agreement. The tension in the air turned from sheer terror to suspicion as the Knot Island fire vortex was ignored for the time being.

“But we do,” Matt answered at long last. “That’s what he has been trying to find out this whole time. Navel Rock is actually a little island southwest of Quest Island. He headed that way this morning, so you guys had better hurry.”

Elea looked back at the island being destroyed right before their eyes. “But...”

“We’ll stay back and try and save these people,” Shelly offered. “You go, but quickly!”

Carter pulled the third pokeball off his belt and tossed it to the Team Aqua woman. “That’s a Chimecho,” he explained. “You can use it to Teleport back inside the fire wall.”

With a final nod of acknowledgement, Wailord turned away from Knot Island and began swimming away as fast as possible. Elea glanced back at Matt and Shelly one last time. Nice fighting against you all those times, she thought with a faint trace of a smile.

*****

Carter and Elea were both glad when the abandoned Quest Island passed out of view behind them. Unleashing the Unown creatures was easily their most embarrassing mistake to date, but just like so many other things, they had no time to go back and fix it.

Just as Matt had specified, a small landmass appeared to the southeast. A feeling of foreboding struck Elea hard in the chest, as if she were marching off toward her certain doom. It was likely that they would have to fight against the water spirit, and if it were anywhere near as dangerous as the fire one, they would lose.

Upon drawing closer it became apparent that the landmass they had spotted was in fact two separate small islands. Wailord chose to sail the current going in between the two land masses so they could scope out the area better. The one to the right was characterized by a crescent-shaped beach that ended in a steep cliffside going up, while the one on the left she had no time to examine because there was movement from the beach.

Almost immediately after she could recognize a pokemon, a large whirlpool formed above the water and slammed Wailord into the coastline. Large tidal waves swept her, Carter, and the whale up onto the beach, and Elea finally opened her eyes only to see a small blue fairy-like pokemon levitating in a column of water, markings all over its body exuding a harsh red light.

Norman’s back was turned for a split second, so Elea glanced at Carter before releasing Bronzor into the air. Like they had practiced, the psychic mirror pokemon used its Reflect attack to bend the light waves surrounding it and Elea in order to make them both invisible.

“Ugh,” Carter moaned weakly from the sand as Norman moved to tower over him.

“You thought you could stop me, did you?” the former gym leader grinned maliciously. “What happened to your traitorous girlfriend, did she die?”

Thinking fast about what Elea’s real plan could possibly be, Carter answered, “Still holding off Matt. I don’t know what happened to Shelly.”

“Right here, sweetie,” came an all-too-sweet voice as the last female Team Aqua member appeared to be riding into the beach on her Mantine. “You really thought you could escape me?”

She walked down the beach to stand next to Norman and the demonic water monster he now controlled. The Aqua leader turned to her, saying, “You should have stopped this fool before he got this far. But it doesn’t matter, I will just dispose of him using the water spirit!”

“Now!” the woman who appeared to be Shelly shouted out, driving her fist into Norman’s stomach as Bronzor’s Reflect disguise fell and Elea was exposed. Carter released his Feebas and commanded a combined Hydro Pump attack with Wailord, while Elea called for a Solarbeam from Vigoroth.

Both powerful attacks struck the luminescent water creature, but the veil of water appeared to shield it from all damage. Norman laughed maniacally as another giant swirling whirlpool threw Vigoroth and Elea upside down back into the water. The tiny creature reached forward and large columns of water lifted out of the ocean, resembling arms that it could control.

A hurricane tossed both trainers around and around, trying to drown them. Elea had never felt such hopelessness before in her life as she could literally do nothing at all to even move in the direction she wanted to.

Suddenly, the attack stopped and Carter and Elea fell back down into the regular inanimate ocean, thankful they could breathe once more. Wailord had launched himself forward in a Giga Impact attack, and it had caught the water fairy off guard. The two pushed back and forth with their respective power, and Carter knew Wailord could not hold on much longer.

“Go,” Elea commanded him. “Get to the other island, and I’ll follow you after we stun them with Flash in a second. We’re gonna die if we don’t retreat.”

The fisherman, with wide eyes the whole time, scooped up Feebas in his arms and made a run for the water to get away. Wailord, however, couldn’t hold on any longer and was thrown backwards, skidding to a stop in the sand. The water spirit’s red markings glowed more fiercely than ever and dozens of streams of water lifted out of the ocean, whipping around violently.

Carter and Feebas were caught up in one, and this time there was no Wailord around to get them out. The fisherman held his breath the longest he could but could still feel his strength weakening as they were tossed from side to side and slammed repeatedly into the sand and lifted up once more.

Elea screamed, trying to dodge the water whips herself, but also screaming for her Vigoroth, whose Shock Wave attack didn’t seem to dissipate the water attack at all. She glanced at Carter’s writhing body suddenly become still in the water and felt her heart sink into her stomach in dread. She dove into the sand and Bronzor launched itself spinning toward the water spirit. It exploded in a huge burst of power, throwing the blue and red creature off balance.

At the last moment Carter could think, Feebas was glowing the same white color Slakoth had back on Knot Island. A long, snakelike pokemon managed to squirm its way out of the water attack and pull Carter along with it down to the ocean.

The tan and blue sea serpent surfaced, and Carter came up coughing up large amounts of water on its back. The new Milotic glided through the currents with all the effort it had, carrying Carter to the relative safety of the second island.

Still breathing heavily from his near death, Carter thanked his pokemon and turned to what lay before him. A stone staircase seemed to be built into the side of a nearby hill, so he darted up to the top with Milotic slithering along right behind.

From his vantage point at the top of the plateau area, Carter saw that Elea was effectively inside a stationary hurricane. Off toward the middle of the flattened area was a curious stone device that was pointing upward toward the sky.

It appeared to be a telescope at first, but with only a small glass piece that appeared to magnify nothing, he decided otherwise.

“Milotic!” the snake pokemon cried out, pointing its scaly tail back toward the ensuing battle as if to suggest he should be trying to save Elea.

“Just a second,” he said, “I have a feeling about this thing.”

Grabbing the two handles on the sides, Carter found that he could pivot the telescope-like device around and point it down at the other island’s beach. Suddenly, ribbons of light appeared in the sky, leaving Carter and Milotic to assume it was the water spirit’s doing.

The auroras of light descended onto the plateau Carter was standing on, and seemed to flow into the stone tube he had pointed down toward the battlefield. In a sudden realization, Carter discovered that he was in fact controlling a laser, not a telescope. He could feel the aurora’s power coursing through the stone, and the second he saw a bright flash of light and Elea jumping into the water, he screamed out and a gigantic beam of light enveloped the entire beach area.

Carter was pushed to the ground by the sheer force of the weapon firing. A cloud of steam rose up and covered the entire second island due to the heat of the aurora light striking the water.

Suddenly remembering Elea, the fisherman sprinted back down the stone staircase to help her out of the water. She handed back Wailord’s pokeball, and they looked back as the steam finally cleared from the beach.

Elea gasped and simply sat down in the shallows next to Carter, the scene before them being completely beyond words. Everything in the laser’s path had been completely vaporized, leaving a large hole larger than the entire crescent moon beach that was slowly filling back up with water. Norman and the water spirit were completely gone, and the danger with them. Everything was going to be all right.

“Swalot!” the purple pokemon briefly inflated its body before pointing back to the tower.

Capitalize "the," because you're starting a new sentence.

It was just like Tentacool’s mom, he thought, and I couldn’t save her! Carter’s mind went into a panic and he shared a knowing look with the pokemon’s older brother Tentacruel.

That's not good...

“We’re being attacked!” the woman in the police outfit pointed out the window to where a round purple pokemon floated up to the side of the building and proceeded to explode.

I loved that imagery! KOFFING GO KABOOM!

At the last moment Carter could think, Feebas was glowing the same white color Slakoth had back on Knot Island. A long, snakelike pokemon managed to squirm its way out of the water attack and pull Carter along with it down to the ocean.

Yay, evolution!

I especially liked the last chapter; the battle scene was really cool. Good job!